Chapter 70 Helm Ogre (3).

Two companions were standing back to back. Tanker Neal had a large shield big enough to cover his body. He heard the sound of steel pounding on his shield. It sounded like a countdown for his death.

‘I can't even bring myself to cuss now.’

The plan had been simple. They had planned on sending a powerful magic spell to blow away the monsters surrounding the Toon Party. The Toon party would then use that opportunity to escape. If the situation was unfavorable, they had planned on just retreating. It was a very simple job.

So they used the magic. It was a level 90 Rare Flame Type magic. The Bulldozer Bear was used. A 5 meter burning bear crazily ran directly towards the monsters. The Bulldozer Bear was the most suitable magic to break the perimeter.

It was quite effective. The Black Trolls wearing armor and the regular Black Troll were pushed back, and they were knocked down to the floor by the Bulldozer Bear. The problem was the trail of fire left by the charging Bulldozer Bear. The Helm Ogre stepped on the burning field.

‘Can't this bastard see? Why the hell did he step on that?’

They intentionally tried hard not to draw the Helm Ogre's aggro, and they never expected the Helm Ogre to step on the fire.

After stepping on the fire made from magic, the Helm Ogre took damage, and the aggro instantly landed on the mage. While letting out a roar, the Helm Ogre charged towards the mage and it was very fast.

It was very quick and agile. The massive body moved so fast that its movement almost looked like a mirage. As it closed the distance, the Helm Ogre raised its blade high. It was positioning itself to cut down the enemy in a swift manner.

Since the mage had low Strength, he would be caught even if he ran away. This meant Tanker Neal had to get in between to block the attack. Neal had said that he would run away, but this was his family he had worked together to almost reach level one hundred. He couldn’t just run away after leaving his family behind. The priest stuck to Neal's back. The two of them were left behind, so it was out of the question for the other three to run away.

Eventually, the Alto Family was also surrounded.

The Toon family tried to escape through the gap made by the Altop Family, but in the end, the Toon family was divided into two groups before they were surrounded again. Fortunately, the Toon Party had two Tankers. The two group was separated with the each Tanker anchoring the group. If the Tankers weren't present, one group would have been wiped out.

This was what had happened up until now.

‘Anyways, these monsters work very well together.’

Even in such a situation, Neal was analyzing the situation. It was the role of a Tanker. In a battle, the Tanker moved the closest around the enemies. If the Tanker couldn't block the attack, the priest and the mage would die. If the mage and the priest died, the tanker would die. If one of them had to die, it was more ideal for the tanker to die.

In Neal's opinion, the 30 armed monsters here were being commanded. They were too in sync.

This was especially apparent when the monsters formed the encircling net. They worked in close cooperation. This was the reason why the party had been instantly surrounded by the group of monsters.

On the other hand, this was also their weakness.

'The order to form an encircling net must have the highest priority.'

The monsters here had to form the encircling net first, then they could battle.

This resulted in not many monsters actually participating in battle to directly attack the Users. The rest of the group tried to keep the perimeter instead of joining in on the attack.

It meant the monsters were designed for this purpose. Neal and the other party members realized this, so they only defended the attacks from the attacking monsters. They didn't use their magic on the perimeter to draw the aggro to them.

‘We are quite fortunate that this is only a game.’

This result was possible only because this was a game.

In reality, if the enemy had enough numbers to form a perimeter, the commander would order a systematic attack.

However, the difficulty of the game would become too high if that had happened inside a game.

This was why they had to bide their time for an opportunity.

If a new party showed up, the group of monsters would move to surround that party too.

The problem was that the other parties were still far away. It would be difficult to pin their hopes on them.

‘If someone would just show up here...’

Eventually, Neal had a preposterous idea that was akin to a prayer.

At that moment...

Kwahng!

Someone really did just show up.

A sound of an explosion was heard from behind Neal's back. Instead of being surprised, Neal knew this was a chance that will never come again.

After the explosion went off, the perimeter started to pitch and roll. The monsters were moving to surround the new group. The dense perimeter became a little bit less dense.

Neal knew well what he had to do.

“Lump together!”

Instead of using this opportunity to run away, they had to gather together. If they scattered now, they would eventually be tracked down. They would be defeated one by one.

If they did the opposite by gathering, their number would be 10 users! They would be able to form a battle line with 3 Tankers.

Moreover, if the people helping them numbered over five, they wouldn't be at a numerical disadvantage. They'll be able to conduct a battle.

They'll live if they lumped together.

“Lump together! Lump together!”

The other two groups also thought along the same line as Neal. They had played Warlord for over a year, and these users were considered above average. They had dove into Warlord by the lure of being able to make ends meet through playing a game. No one here would back off like a coward.

They immediately gathered around each other.

When the mage and the priest joined the group, the Tankers were hit by the swung swords of the Orc and Trolls. However, there was no Game Over. They got into a triangular formation with the Tankers at each point, then the mages and priest were gathered in the middle.

The healing started.

"Wow. Nice to see you."

"It's really nice to see you. I never thought I would be this happy to see you.”

“I told you to go yet you came. Why go through all this hardship?”

“I'm not doing this for free. I'll be sure to get a fair recompense.”

“H...heal me.”

“Anyway, who showed up right now?”

The conversations started up. It had only been a brief moment, but the party was swept up by various emotions. The party was raucous, and the group didn't show any signs of calming down. Even the Tankers, who were busy blocking the continuous sword strikes from the Black Trolls and the Black Orcs, tried to get at least a word into the chat as they all repeated the same questions. What explanation was there to be given?

At that moment, someone spoke.

“It's the Hahoe Mask!”

Those words consolidated the atmosphere, feelings and words that had been devolving into a mess.

8.

Each of them were worth 50 gold. The Bone Explosives had pretty good power, yet ten was enough to shake the battle field.

As the battle field shook, the Black Troll identified the new enemy. The armored group of monsters turned to look at the enemy. They looked towards Hyrkan's direction. There were 11 Skeleton Warriors and a 5 meter tall Golem lined up behind Hyrkan.

Each of the Skeleton Warriors looked different from each other. There were 7 Skeleton Warriors with the Madness Helm on. There were 4 Skeleton Warriors with the Bone Armor. They all couldn't have the same equipment, because of the Skill Rank and Hyrkan's available Magic Power. However, they all had one thing in common.

Hyrkan was their master and teacher.

Ddahk ddahk!

Hyrkan flicked his finger, and the Skeleton warriors charged straight towards the monsters.

Those with the Madness Helm was the fastest.

The Skeleton Warriors were fearless. They didn't care if the enemy was strong or if their swords would work against them. They just didn't care. The Skeleton Warriors nimbly evaded the swords flying towards them. Then, they continued their charge forward after cutting the body of its opponent.

Chooong!

The swords, and armors continuously clashed against each other.

Kahhng!

The sound of steel ringing permeated the surrounding.

It wasn’t a sound that could have come from a symphony. Hyrkan ran in the midst of these noises. He cut through the group of monsters, and as he was running, he stepped on the body of a Troll. He jumped high into the sky, then he landed on the ground.

It was where the 3 Tankers had created an open space.

Hyrkan landed without any shakiness and opened his mouth.

“You have to make it worth my time. Help me catch the Helm Ogre.”

Straightforwardness.

It wasn't a request. It was almost an order. Those words flustered the party members. However, they weren't flustered for long.

“What do you need us to do?”

Hyrkan's words were right. Hyrkan had saved them, so at the very least, they had to make it worth his time.

The only thing left was whether they could trust Hyrkan’s skill. Fortunately, that part wasn't a problem. Everyone here had seen it.

“It’s a 1on1 stage.”

They saw the video of Hyrkan catching the Bear Warrior by himself. Anyone who liked the game Warlord had seen it. If a person still suspected Hyrkan's skills after that, one wasn't suspecting his skill. The person had an inferiority complex.

“Is it possible for him to deal damage?”

Of course, the Helm Ogre was several time stronger than the Bear Warrior. The Helm Ogre was probably very close to level 100. At the very least, there was a high probability that the Helm Ogre had the highest level here.

Moreover, as a Necromancer, there weren't that many methods Hyrkan could use to deal damage. If he was a swordsman, who was a Striker instead of a Tanker, he could use skills to optimize his attack power to the extreme end. It was possible for the Striker to deal damage on par with a mage. However, it was hard to expect this from a Necromancer.

Even if they could create a 1on1 stage, Hyrkan wouldn't be able to deal damage easily.

“I'll destroy his armor first. Then I'll deal the damage.”

Hyrkan was well aware of this truth.

He hadn't wanted a one-on-one fight in the first place. He planned on destroying the armor being used by the Helm Ogre. If he was able to break the Armor, there were numerous ways to deal damage to the Ogre. No, since he had already decided to use the 10 users here, he didn't have to worry about dealing damage.

Currently, it wasn't important to see, who could deal the most damage. Depending on the Helm Ogre's HP status, it used various special abilities as it went through various phases. No one here knew that truth. Like the fight against the Bear Warrior, the right answer was to destroy the armor before the Helm Ogre could enter a new phase.

This was the basic plan used when fighting against an unknown monster.

These users were at the cusp of level 100, so they knew about this strategy. Since everyone knew this fact, he didn't have to explain any further, and the party didn't ask any questions.

The situation was sorted out.

Hyrkan immediately pointed a finger at a priest.

“Buff.”

“Huh?”

The priest looked dumbfounded as he tilted his head in confusion. Hyrkan spoke as he looked at the priest.

“Please.”

“Ah.”

The priest finally started to give Hykan the Buffs, while he had an awkward smile on his face.

9.

The battle between the Skeleton Warriors, Black Trolls, and Black Orcs was spectacular. The Skeleton Warriors were fighting 1on1 with the monsters. As a Necromancer, the scene unfolding in front of them was a dream come true.

Even though the battle was spectacular, the result wasn't very good.

The Skeleton Warriors could leave a dent on the monster's armor, but that was the extent of the damage. The monsters didn't even bother blocking their attacks. Since they were being hit on top of the armor, why would they feel pain?

On the other hand, the Skeleton Warriors took significant damage from even a single blow. They dodged well, but once they were hit a part of their body broke off. The ones wearing the Bone Armors fared better, but not by much. Those who didn't have this protection were in a pitiful state once they were hit on the body.

The Golem was in the same boat. With the increase in Skill Rank, the Golem possessed a 5 meter tall frame. At times, the Golem's attack threw back the Orcs and Trolls, but the end result wasn't that great. Moreover, the body of the Golem was becoming ragged with each attack.

The Skeleton Warriors were being destroyed one after another, yet in the end, no monsters had fallen.

They were at a level where they could only buy time.

However, even if they were only buying time, it was enough. The Skeleton Warriors and the Golem was distracting a total of 12 Black Trolls and Black Orcs. They distracted the monsters for a good amount of time.

The Toon Party and the Alto Family had some breathing room, but they didn't waste the time that was given to them.

“All right. Let's go!”

“Let's counterattack those dirty troll bastards!”

“The Skeleton Warriors are fighting admirably. We have to fight too!”

The very first ones to move was the Tankers. The Tankers had been dispatched into a triangular formation with them at each points, but now they formed a semicircular formation. They formed a wall, and the monsters pounded against the wall.

Kwahng- kwahng!

When the Tankers formed the wall, the mages threw the magics they had prepared over the wall.

The first magic to appear was the Burning Field.

“First, put down the field of fire!”

One of the mage put his palm on the floor. The fire started from his palm, and it started to spread rapidly across the ground.

Hwah-roo-roo-roo!

The Burning Field was most effective when used in a long battle against numerous monsters. It couldn't deal a lot of damage at once, but significant damage accumulated in a long battle.

During all of this, a large drop of water the size of a human started to rise into the air.

“Shoot!”

The floating water drop became a large water arrow when the mage's command fell.

Arrow Ball!

It had the power to crush armors. It had a very powerful ability to pierce through the weakest part of an armor. It was also an attack sent from the sky, so the attack radius was quite large.

The last mage left was a Lightning Mage. He sent a constant stream of low level Lightning Magic called Stun Gun. The monsters had approached the Tankers were affected by the Stun effect. The Black Trolls and Black Orcs that had been continuously attacking the Tankers stopped moving for 1 second.

During all of this, the priests were also moving busily.

“The Holy Metal will end in 30 seconds. Thirty seconds, Neal!”

“The Boiling Blood Magic is going into countdown. I'm in cool time, so someone else do it! 10, 9, 8…….”

The role of Priest wasn't all fun and games. With regards to Tankers, the Priest had to calculate the time left on all the Buffs given to the Tankers. If the Buff suddenly ended, an attack could instantly kill the Tanker. The HP calculation was a given. In the latter stages of the game, a single priest used 10 buff magic. The view of the game changes from a game into something akin to what an airplane pilot sees.

The priest would be busily engaged, and the activity would energize the priest.

The Toon Party and Alto Family fought in sync as if they had been fighting together for a long time. One by one the monsters were beginning to be eliminated.

Then Hyrkan started to move.

10.

He put on his hood, and he activated the effect of the Shadow Hunting Dog set. He quickly got closer to the Helm Ogre. The monsters' aggro was focused elsewhere, and the Shadow Dog Set's option allowed him to lessen his presence. There was only one monster here that would be able to notice him.

The only monster that the party hadn't pull the aggro was the Helm Ogre, who stood in the middle of the battlefield.

The bastard realized Hyrkan was getting close before he got there, so the Helm Ogre prepared itself.

The Helm Ogre's sword impacted on the floor. The floor collapsed as if a meteor had fallen. A crater had formed.

It let out a bone chilling sound indicating the great power of the blow.

However, Hyrkan was nowhere to be seen inside the crater.

Hykan had nimbly avoided the sword, then he brushed by the Helm Ogre. The Helm Ogre turned its body to chase after Hyrkan. Its sword was swung horizontally as it turned its body.

Hooong!

A heavy sound of wind was let out as the sword cut through the empty air. When the Helm Ogre swung at the empty air, Hyrkan stabbed his sword into the space behind the ogre's right knee.

Zzeeeng!

The sword was embedded, but it wasn’t embedded deep enough. It only left a small scratch.

‘Twice? No, I have to stab three times…….’

After finishing his move in a flash, Hyrkan widened his distance from the Helm Ogre.

The Helm Ogre glared at Hyrkan. Hyrkan tried to avoid the Helm Ogre's gaze. After avoiding its gaze, he assessed the bastard's armor.

“Hmmm.”

‘I have his measure, but I’m going to have problems piercing it.’

If he wanted to destroy the armor, he had to find out the points where he had to attack. However, he didn't have any information about how to destroy the Helm Ogre's armor. Hyrkan had no way of knowing the Armor Break Points.

He had no choice, but to do this the hard way!

“Countdown!”

Hyrkan raised his voice, and he voice rang out.

Accompanying his shout, the fire that had been spread across the battlefield started to disappear. The magic power that had been supplying the Burning Field had been cut off.

“10, 9, 8!”

Then the countdown was started.

The monster couldn't comprehend what the countdown was about. A single Bulldozer Bear charged towards the Helm Ogre. The Helm Ogre had been focused solely on Hyrkan, so it couldn't avoid the Bulldozer Bear.

Kwahhng!

The sound of two enormous creatures colliding was loud.

Ggoo-ohhhhh!

The Helm Ogre's yell became much more powerful. As the Helm Ogre let out its cry, it looked towards the one, who had used the magic. The mage was far away, but the mage unconsciously swallowed his saliva! The Helm Ogre's gaze was strong enough to make him gulp. The Helm Ogre charged towards the magician.

At that moment, Hyrkan used the Bone Explosive he had been saving. The Bone Explosive worth 300 gold was thrown towards the Helm Ogre.

Kwah-gwahng!

The Bone Explosive's power was considerable, and the Helm Ogre immediately changed its direction towards Hyrkan to attack. It didn't even make any preparations for an attack. It immediately brought down its sword toward Hyrkan.

In a flash, Hyrkan charged towards the Helm Ogre. He passed between its legs. In a breath, Hyrkan was behind the Helm Ogre's back. Then Hyrkan’s eyes picked up the present made by the Bulldozer Bear. he saw the cracks that hadn't been there before.

There were numerous gaps that had been formed on the armor from the previous impact.

Hyrkan eyed the gaps as he acted.

Kwah-jeek!

The sword force itself into the gap.

[The Helm Ogre was affected by the Sloth Curse..]

[The Helm Ogre was affected by the Corrosion Ghost.]

[The Helm Ogre was affected by the Demon Curse.]

The curse had begun.

Hyrkan firmly shut his mouth.

11.

When the Strength Stat reaches a certain point for the Warlord User, it was very easy for the user to move one's body. In reality, there was no one that could last by holding onto a nail embedded into a wall . However, when the Strength Stat passes a certain point, tasks like that was quite easy in Warlord.

When a user reaches that level, the user could create a crack, and one could hang indefinitely with one finger inside that crack.

Of course, skill was needed to last long.

The monster's body was constantly moving. Hyrkan was like a brave cowboy riding atop an angry bull except that paled in comparison to what this was like.

One couldn't predict what would happen at any moment. The liquid flowing down the monster's back might be sweat or it could be poison. The body could suddenly emit incredible heat or coldness. A monster could pop out from its back like the movie Alien.

Even a human with a bug on its back would try to roll around the ground to chase the bug away. Monsters did as much or even more to get rid of the pest.

Therefore, the most important aspect was one's adaptability. One needed excellent responses to a situation that was ever changing.

In terms of adaptability, Hyrkan was the best in Warlord.

‘If we can't do this, there is no food for us!’

It took 8 minutes 33 seconds.

Hyrkan finally took off the Helm Ogre's armor. There weren't any singular point he attacked. It was like the dotted line on stamps. He had to make holes to make a dotted line to be able to peel off the armor. It was done with brute force and recklessness. However, Hyrkan didn't have any choice.

It took around 8 minutes to take off only the breastplate. His shoulder armor, gauntlet, helm and greaves were still present. Only his breastplate had fallen off, but its muscular body was revealed.

In some ways, the result was below expectations.

However, if one was a Warlord user, one wouldn't dare say this was below expectations.

“He's more incredible than the video I saw.”

“That's a Necromancer? Who would believe it?”

Hyrkan showed ability that was almost unbelievable.

Of course, while Hyrkan was in the frontline, the rest of the users were plenty active during that time. They diligently lessened the number of monsters through battle. When Hyrkan broke off the Helm Ogre's armor, there were only 4 Black Trolls left. Moreover, there were only 9 monsters left excluding the Black Trolls.

They had halved the number of monsters.

The Toon Party and Alto Family were most definitely strong users. Of course, one couldn't discount the active role the Skeleton Warriors and Golem took part in.

Also, Hyrkan had laid everything on the line.

He didn't skimp on using his Items. Therefore, the Altom Family and the Toon Family decided to use all their consumable items if it came to it. They didn't hold anything back. If one considered the cost of the items consumed in this battle, one could easily buy a small car.

When all the monsters excluding the Helm Ogre was defeated, the main damage dealing started.

“Ee-yah. We finally arrived at this point!”

“The wrapping is all off, so we just have to eat it!”

The magicians began damage dealing in earnest. The Water Arrow shot out by the Aqua Ball pierced through the thick skin of the Helm Ogre. The continuous Lightning Spear was powerful enough for the Helm Ogre to momentarily forget about its anger.

“I'm sending the Bulldozer!”

The mages continuously ate magic recovery candies as they shot out powerful magic. It most definitely damaged the Helm Ogre.

However, it wasn’t as if the Helm Ogre did nothing.

Every time the magic impacted the Helm Ogre it chased after the Magicians. The Tankers had to put their lives on the line to stop the frightening charge.

“Ah, shit!”

There were cases where the Tankers were flung backwards as they failed to block the charge.

“Heal! Heal!”

“Wait a moment!”

The Tankers took significant damage, but they didn't hesitate to put their body in the path of the Helm Ogre. While the Tankers killed the clock, Hyrkan moved. Hyrkan stabbed his sword into the Helm Ogre's spine, and the Helm Ogre turned toward Hyrkan in anger.

The accumulated damage changed the Helm Ogre's movements.

When its HP fell below 70%, it used its enormous rage to cause Fear. It reduced everyone's Stats by 30%.

“It's Fear!”

“It would have been strange if this monster didn't have it!”

It even used a dangerous skill called Knife Throw to heavily wound two mages.

“This is crazy. He just threw it? What kind of bastard is this?”

“Koo-roo. Are you ok?”

“Uh. I'm barely alive. I've only got 2% HP left.”

“You are quite composed for someone, who just barely survived.”

“Uh. It's almost 1 percent. Hey, hurry up and heal me.”

“Wait a moment. The Heal cooltime...”

“What? Hey! Hey!”

“I'm kidding.”

When the HP dropped below 40%, it had activated its Steel Skin. The bastard's skin became harder than its armor.

“Stop attacking with Magic! We can't manage the aggro in this state!”

“We have to draw his blood through small attacks!”

“Oh yes! We can rest for a little bit!”

“Uh-whew. Those cheeky mage bastards.”

“If you have a problem, then grow a new character.”

When the HP went below the last 10%, the Helm Ogre went into Rage mode, and it showcased its scary attack capabilities.

“Aigo!”

“Neal flew! He really is flying!”

“This is the first time I've seen him fly.”

“What power.... This is crazy.”

“You guys evade on your own! Tankers won't be able to block its attack!”

A single fist had the power to blow away a Tanker. Everyone froze when they realized what an uphill battle this would be. Who would charge towards a monster that could fling a Tanker away?